[Peace-discuss] A reasonable comment on the war

[C. G. Estabrook]

	Antiwar.com Blog
	Defend Michael Steele!
	Posted: 02 Jul 2010 01:23 PM PDT

Defend Michael Steele? I never thought I’d be writing that!

But the neocons, led by Bill Kristol, are demanding his resignation as national 
chairman of the Republican Party.

Why?

At a fundraising event Steele was caught on video in a “gaffe” (a technical term 
signifying that a politician has spoken the truth).

Steele suggested that Afghanistan is “a war of Obama’s choosing.” “Well if he’s 
such a student of history, has he not understood that, you know, that’s the one 
thing you don’t do is engage in a land war in Afghanistan,” Steele says of 
Obama. “Alright? Because everyone who has tried over a thousand years of history 
has failed. And there are reasons for that. There are other ways to engage in 
Afghanistan without committing more troops.” Steele suggests America should have 
a “background” role in the country, “sort of shaping the changes that were 
necessary in Afghanistan as opposed to directly engaging troops.”

Steele also described the situation around the resignation of Gen. Stanley 
McChrystal as “very comical.”

Although Steele later backtracked a bit in an official statement, he should be 
commended for even talking about what is quickly becoming the Democrats’ war in 
such a frank manner. The Democratic National Committee quickly attacked Steele 
for wanting to “walk away from the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban 
without finishing the job.”

I suggest that you call the Republican National Committee and indicate your 
support for Michael Steele’s original statement: 202-863-8500.

On 7/2/10 5:13 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> But only a very few Congressional Democrats would endorse that statement.
>
> And it doesn't go so far as, say, Ron Paul would (or you or I).
>
> On 7/2/10 5:07 PM, Stuart Levy wrote:
>> On Fri, Jul 02, 2010 at 05:02:15PM -0500, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
>>> "This was a war of Obama's choosing ... has he not understood that the one
>>> thing you don't do is engage in a land war in Afghanistan, because everyone
>>> who's tried over a thousand years of history has failed? There are reasons
>>> for that. And there are other ways to engage in Afghanistan."
>>
>> This is a good thing for someone of an opposition party to say.
>> We've heard it before under Republicans and Democrats,
>> from Democrats and Republicans. We need more opposition parties.
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